Front discharge concrete vehicles or trucks are commonly employed in construction to mix, transport and pour concrete. In contrast to rear discharge concrete vehicles, front discharge concrete vehicles include a drum with an outlet generally supported above a cab enclosure of the vehicle to enable concrete to be discharged and poured through a chute extending forward the vehicle. Because the vehicle discharges concrete at its forward end, the vehicle is better able to supply concrete to locations having limited access.
Although better able to supply concrete to otherwise inaccessible locations, conventional front discharge concrete vehicles are generally restricted to single occupancy cab enclosure due to the extension of the mixing drum above the cab enclosure. Due to the relatively large weight of the drum and concrete, front discharge concrete vehicles require a relatively large support post or column to support the drum above the cab enclosure. Consequently, the available space for the cab enclosure is limited. As a result, this limited space has necessitated the use of single occupancy cab enclosures on front discharge concrete vehicles.
In many situations, it would be desirable to provide the front discharge concrete vehicle with a dual occupant enclosure to transport two individuals to a construction site as well as to train individuals. Conventional front discharge concrete vehicle cab enclosures do not provide this ability. As a result, some attempts have been made to increase the occupancy. In particular, many attempts have been made at mounting an additional cab enclosure beside the already existing cab enclosure. With such attempts, the additional cab enclosure has been bolted to and above the right fender somewhat below the drum. Such attempts have not proved satisfactory for several reasons. First, with such cab enclosure add-ons, the controls for the mixer drum and the work vehicle are generally inaccessible to the operator in the add-on. This is due to the fact that the operator in the cab enclosure add-on and the drum controls in the original cab enclosure are separated by a relatively high side wall which prevents access to the controls. This same wall also interferes with interaction between both cab enclosure occupants. Consequently, such cab enclosure add-ons do not facilitate training or operation of the mixer drum by the operator in the cab enclosure add-on. Second, because such cab enclosure add-ons are generally bolted to the fender or existing cab, such add-ons are viewed as less sturdy and require additional bracing of the fender. Third, because such cab enclosure add-ons must be fit between the support column and the preexisting structure extending behind the original cab enclosure, such cab enclosure add-ons offer little leg room and operator comfort. Furthermore, such add-ons do not typically provide climate control which further reduces the comfort level of the operator in the cab enclosure add-on.
As a result, there is a continuing need for a dual occupancy cab enclosure for a front discharge concrete vehicle which is spacious and sturdy and which provides mixer drum control access to both operators in the cab enclosure.